Journalists arrested in Cameroon while reporting on Trump’s secretive deportation programme

An Associated Press reporter was beaten by the police and detained along with three other journalists on Feb 17 in Cameroon while reporting on a secretive Trump administration programme to deport migrants to the Central African country, according to two of the people detained.

The journalists, along with a lawyer representing most of 15 detained migrants, were seized by the police at a state-run compound in Yaounde, the capital, where they were interviewing the deportees.

The New York Times reported on Feb 14 that the compound was a detention centre for African migrants who were recently deported from the US by the Department of Homeland Security.

None of the deportees are Cameroonian citizens. And almost all had received protection from American courts, which banned the government from sending them back to their home countries, where they would most likely face persecution, according to government documents obtained by the Times and interviews with their lawyers.

The five people detained on Feb 17 were taken to the judicial police headquarters, where the journalists were separated and interrogated, according to Mr Joseph Awah Fru, the lawyer supporting the deportees, and Mr Randy Joe Sa’ah, a freelance journalist who regularly works for the BBC and was one of the detainees.

The three other journalists were a reporter for The Associated Press, a photojournalist and a videographer. The AP declined to comment.

Some of the journalists, Mr Fru and Mr Sa’ah said, were kept in a cell for hours. The men said the AP reporter appeared to have been beaten up and told them the police had attacked him.

All of the five were later freed. Before the journalists were released, the police confiscated their phones, cameras and laptops, saying the journalists had captured sensitive government information, according to Mr Fru and Mr Sa’ah. It was unclear if any had been charged.

Cameroon’s Ministry of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and the police headquarters could not be reached through public phone numbers.

The Trump administration has not publicly announced any deal with Cameroon to accept foreign deportees. The State Department said on Feb 13 it would not comment on its “diplomatic communications with other governments” when asked about the terms of an agreement. The expulsions have raised concerns about human rights and the secrecy of US President Donald Trump’s approach to global deportations.

Several of the migrants in the detention centre who arrived there in January said they had felt pressured by the local authorities to return to their home countries or face indefinite detention in Cameroon, according to four people on the flight interviewed by the Times.

“The state cannot prevent the public from knowing where they are keeping deportees who are not even citizens,” Mr Fru said. “That goes to the whole idea of shady deals in the dark.”

Through deals forged with willing governments – often in exchange for cash – the US has deported hundreds of people to countries that may not respect the removal protections they have been granted in US courts, returning some of them to the dangers they fled. NYTIMES